America

Hi
Well, where do I start….?

So much has happened, good and bad things so blog will be a bit jumpy…..
In St. Augustine at the moment for Chris to finish off his flying. He is doing his commercial, cfi and multi engine so he is a busy boy indeed. Cfi stands for flying instructor. We are here for 10 weeks. Awfully nice to live in a flat and have a car to use, music blaring and TV on….unlimited access to Internet….but my brains are frazzled! Couldn’t understand why I was so tired the first week here and the kids until I realised I have surrounded to an awful lot of noise from a very quiet environment! Shocking!
Anyway, Christmas has been and gone, everybody happy and didn’t go silly on food. Chris works every day so Christmas Day was the only day off so far.
We had a blast on new year with our new found friend and daughter who also happens to rent half of their house out, so we moved out from a very expensive ocean village condo to her place. Cheaper rent and much more fun for the kids.

So, let’s track back, about Charlie’s passport. The whole process went stupid and as usual left hand doesn’t talk to right hand. We ended up getting a emergency passport and finally we left Santa Marta. All very exiting and no time to grieve, just desperate to get a move on! And so we did, beautiful afternoon and soon the dreaded night time came. When things start to go wrong. Auto helm packed up so we are hand steering, not use to anything moving on the boat, pain in the backside waives and totally sleep deprived in the morning. So shame to admit but we popped in to Cartagena for a rest! Hahaha…only one night though. We were illegal there as well as we had checked out already.
Another day and night and we came to San blas and a island called Isla pinjos.
Reading and rereading the famous Bauhaus book about San blas and a must have to get around tricky reefs for new comers like us this island has a very easy approach. Very shallow water so we hold our breath and scraped our way in 10 feet, 3,2meters. Our draft is 2.8 feet, 3 meters. All good.
Lovely island with a little kuna village and a beach as well. We realised very quickly that most populated islands don’t have a beach area anymore as they build their huts and toilets all the way to the edges. Yep, that’s the toilets, huts over water so everybody can see what falls out….
We had a nice meal in a kuna Indians hut, met his family and wished we could speak more Spanish. Although they have their own language most learn Spanish in school. Bought a beautiful mola that the women make, a piece of fabric they use as a part of a shirt and Chris taught English in the little school for 3 mornings. Such a lovely , beautiful people and such a eagerness to learn…..puts my kids to shame!
The beach was great but so much litter, nappies and plastic bottles everywhere and nobody tried to clean it up. In matter of fact the nappie got changed and then tossed in the sea….strange indeed.
We also got to meet all the Chiefs from all the islands as they had a big meeting there, in congresso. Congresso is the place they meet every night and all disputes and troubles get solved. Nice!
After 5 days we continued our journey to ustupu but of course not before we slammed the boat on ground on a sandbank. Bloody hell, talk about NOT looking when we left. Luckily all good, just reversed and carried on with heart pumping and a very good reminder to have your eyes open!!!
Will carry on tomorrow! :)))